Challenges of Digital Parenting
If you are a parent, teacher, or other adult working with children this book aims to help you learn lots more about helping digital kids grow into thoughtful, collaborative, and savvy digital citizens. The book's mission is to help adults understand more about the digital world, 21st century learning, and the virtual environment that children take for granted.
Digital Parenting Back-to-School
What can parents and teachers do to ensure that digital kids, with their hand-held devices, connected school activities, homework, and other online activities, get off to a good start at the beginning of the school year?
Back-to-school preparation is more than school supplies, lunch boxes and carpool arrangements. It also involves reviewing and articulating connected-life expectations with family members.
To help you consider the issues in your 21st Century child’s digital life, and your own, use the this nine-item back-to-school digital parenting checklist to get started.
Make decisions about screen time in your family.
When and where will your children use devices at home? What limits will your family have for television, digital devices, and electronic games? If your child uses a personal device from school, are you aware of teacher expectations and time commitments? What else would you like your child to spend time doing? No matter how good your child is at coding or Minecraft, he or she also needs to do other things. A good article for parents and educators (and a great back-to-school piece to share with parents) is on the NPR website — Kids and Screen Time-What Does the Research Say?
Decide where children will work on homework.
Will your child work on assignments in public places such family room, study, or the dining room table, or in a bedroom? HINT: Not the bedroom. If a young student works in a bedroom, how will you monitor the distractions, especially when it comes to digital devices?
Understand that multi-tasking may be a myth.
If you have not read , by John Medina, it is well worth your time, even if you just read the list of rules that describe how the brain works. It’s also great to share with kids, and an audio version is available. Multi-tasking, you’ll discover, is something the brain does poorly. Instead the brain bounces back and forth, switching from music to email to the assignment, to texts, losing about 30 seconds during every switch. For many kids that adds to up to a lot of missed work time.
Consider using a digital device contract or agreement with each family member.
A contract or agreement with each child — there are many available — spells out the behavior that you expect to see as well as the guidelines for using mobile devices, screen time, and downloading apps. Think about and share your ideas about consequences (you can even ask for your child’s suggestions) before a problem arises. When something does go wrong, avoid draconian responses and give additional chances to live up to the agreement.
Make sure that your family talks as much as possible about the digital world — the good (and there is much that’s good), the not so good, and the bad.
These family conversations are so much better and far more effective if they occur regularly and not just when an incident occurs. While parents may feel like they are always behind when it comes to technical information, adults have maturity, perspective, and family values to contribute to the discussion..
Know the apps that are on family members’ digital devices.
For many reasons, it’s good to keep an inventory of the apps on each child’s phone, tablet, or other mobile devices. Well into the middle school years, children should not have automatic downloading privileges.
Set up a centralized family charging station for all devices at a location that is outside of kids’ bedrooms.
It’s well known that many children tend to stay awake with their devices, sometime quite late into the night. Schedule a weekday and weekend home communication curfew, and charge all devices outside of kids’ bedrooms.
The evening meal provides a good opportunity for conversation or maybe your family will take a hike or work on a project together. These family times are critical when it comes to helping children learn how to listen, how to share ideas, and how to treat others respectfully. Think about device-free times when the family eats in a restaurant.
that you want to see in your children.
Almost every child, whether in pre-kindergarten, 12th grade, or anywhere in-between, can tell a story about a parent distracted by a digital device who then ignores family members. Ask just about any educator and you’ll discover kids notice and they talk, especially about parents who use digital devices while driving. Don’t become one of those parent digital habit stories that children share with their friends. Monitor yourself and your screen time and figure out what you need to do to model appropriate digital behavior.
How Can I Block Facebook from my Computer?
If Facebook were a country You’ve heard the statistic, right? If Facebook were a country, it would have a larger populace than China. That’s right — China’s population of 1.3 billion would be eclipsed by Facebook’s 1.7 billion. And these are active users as of 2016 — not just users that opened an account and forgot about it. This translates to 1 in 7 people on the planet hold an active Facebook account.
Of course, that leaves 6 people that haven’t signed up on Facebook or don’t have an active account on Facebook. The reasons are many — reluctance to disclose personal information online, fears of their kids being vulnerable to rampant Facebook dangers, concern that Facebook will cause low productivity, or just plain disinterested. Some folks may want to find a way for their families to live in harmony with Facebook, and others may want to block Facebook from computer altogether.
Facebook ban - 2 Best Practices
There are various ways to block Facebook website on a personal computer. How to block Facebook from computer? Here’s a rundown of the most technical to least technical methods:
Manual Facebook block:
What you need is notepad. Next, depending on your operating system, you will have to adjust the “hosts” file for Facebook in notepad. First things first — what’s your operating system? Find it below, navigate to the host file, and open it using notepad.
For Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vita, the file is in C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\
For Mac OS 9, the file is in “System Folder” and then “Preferences”
For the Mac OS X, the file is at: /private/etc/hosts
Once you identify the host file, open it in notepad and add these lines at the end of the script:
127.0.0.1
127.0.0.1 Facebook.com
Save your notepad document to the same folder. Try opening Facebook in a browser — you won’t be able to. That’s how to ban Facebook on your personal computer!
If option #1 sounds like too much work, there is an easier way to make the social networking site work with you and your family, rather than setting a carte blanche Facebook block. Maybe “how can I block Facebook from my computer?” isn’t the right question. Familoop Safeguard offers ways to minimize the dangers of Facebook. Parents can add Facebook parental controls which include:
Facebook monitoring.
Reviewing pictures that your child posts, whether as “private” or “public.”
Discover who your child is friends with on Facebook.
Receive red-flag alerts if your child is cyberbullied on Facebook.
And most importantly, learn more about your child’s interests — fostering opportunities to bond and grow together.
What to Watch Out For if Your Child is on Facebook
Facebook for kids. Is it safe?
Recently, a father sued Facebook for allowing his 11-year-old daughter to sign up. His daughter lied about her age and created several Facebook profiles. On her profiles, she posted inappropriate pictures. Not surprisingly, she then received inappropriate comments and pictures. After the father discovered and reported these accounts, Facebook did deactivate them. However, the father sued Facebook claiming the company should have done more to stop her from signing up in the first place.
This case was settled out of court but it raises an interesting question. While most social networks and apps do not allow children under 13, they do little to stop them. Most companies enforce their age restriction by stating it in their Terms of Service and requiring a person to enter a birth date when signing up. Once a child enters a fake birth date, they have profile. 7.5 million children under the age of 13 are on Facebook with no protection.
Why is 13 the magic age?
The reason most sites and apps have an age restriction is COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. COPPA protects children’s personal information by giving parents control over what information sites and apps can collect from children. Any site or app directed at kids under 13, or that collects personal information from kids under 13, must comply with this law. Most sites including Facebook comply by simply stating that they do not allow kids under 13. Since no kids, no need for parental controls. Kids are lumped in with adult users.
Children Lying to Facebook not their Parents
According to researchers from the Berkman Center, many of these 7.5 million kids did not sneak on to Facebook. When they surveyed over 1,000 parents with children between the ages of 10-14, they found that parents not only have a fairly good idea what sites their kids were on but parents worked with them to bypass age restrictions assuming that Facebook is safe for kids. Across all ages, no less than 82 percent of parents were aware their child created an account. Among those parents, 64 percent helped create it.
Facebook a Kid’s first Social Network
A Facebook profile is easy to find by strangers and content of your child can and does travel everywhere. Facebook child protection is vital.
For many kids, Facebook is their first grown up social network. Parents want their child on Facebook. This is often where families connect with their extended family and distant friends. Families encourage their children to share pictures with grandma or post video from their soccer game. Parents are confident they can supervise their kids on Facebook.
Facebook is unique in that way. Most other apps a parent joins after their teen wants to sign up. Most of us are passive observers on or . We are just there to engage with our kid. On Facebook, parents are active participants. It is not just parents. If grandma is online, she is on Facebook not Snapchat (learn what is Snapchat and what parents should know in one of my recent articles).
Because families are comfortable with Facebook, they can also become complacent and neglect necessity of Facebook parental controls. When I look at my newsfeed with last night dinner photos and homecoming pictures, I begin to think, what the harm in having a kid on Facebook is. However, Facebook is still an adult social network and kids can stumble into problems.
Facebook is a network of over 1 billion users. With this many users sharing content, it has posts and pictures that are not suitable for children. Facebook does not have a safe search option.
Their digital reputation starts now. Facebook is more than sharing with friends and family. Universities, college, companies, future roommates are all on Facebook. A Facebook profile is easy to find and usually appears in the first page of search results.
Facebook's goal is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. This means content of your child can and does travel everywhere without careful parental control on Facebook.
How to Protect your Child on Facebook
Protect your kids from sexting, cyberbullying, meeting with online predators or damaging their reputation.
Given how highly visible content is on Facebook, parents may want to consider waiting until their child is 13 before signing them up. Whether a family decides to wait or not, parents need to be right there with their kids. Consider Facebook their learner’s permit. This is not the time to throw them the keys and let them take off in the car. This is the time to sit with them and teach them how to navigate and share responsibly on a social network.
Here are some steps to get you and your child on the right foot with Facebook.
Sign up together. Most social networks have similar sign ups. When signing up, families should talk about what information is public and what is private. Typically, their name and profile picture is always public. Parents and kids should choose these carefully.
Walk through privacy settings. Most kids want to rush this process and start posting right away. They should make it a habit to always look through the settings first. What is nice about Facebook child protection is it has stronger privacy setting for children under 18.
Discuss who can friend them. Young kids should stick with family and close friends. If someone tries to friend them that they do not know, they should come to you. Parents should also keep track of the number of friends. Since they are just learning, families will want to keep posts and pictures within a tight circle.
Show kids how to report inappropriate content and block people. Everyone should take advantage of these controls to shape the network they want to see. Facebook has updated its reporting system to help guide kids to make smart decisions online.
“If you don't want anyone else to have it, then don't post it.” Yesterday, this quote appeared on my newsfeed. It sums up sharing on Facebook. Even with the most robust privacy controls, posts and pictures can be copied and shared. Parents should check in and discuss what to post and what not to post.
5 Child Safety Tips to Keep Child Safe on Social Networks
“What should I know about Instagram?” When I talk with parents, this is their top question. What do they need to know about the apps their kids are using and how to keep their kids safe. Trying to keep up with the latest social network and monitor social media is a full time job. Even the networks parents think they know come out with new features and new settings that may put kids more at risk.
Thus, being technologically aware is not only way to safeguard our children from the bad world of internet. We need to connect and develop confidence by creating a platform of open and healthy discussion so that, we can be well aware of the thoughts going on in the mind of the new generation and accordingly help then in the time of need and vulnerable situation . There must be a family response mechanism system to encounter such issues.
